


costly

by maureenbrown



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, F/F, Femslash, Librarians, Misunderstandings, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 09:10:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7428719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maureenbrown/pseuds/maureenbrown
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermione rolls her eyes. Classics like this tend to be annotated more, but that doesn’t make it any less of a convenience as a librarian, even though she’s young and should have a bigger tolerance level.</p><p>She quickly brushes past the pages to witness sad faces at Gatsby’s death, and hearts by Daisy’s name. The reader must be somewhat of a romantic.</p><p>She flips back to the first page, smoothing it out to read the names on who checked it out. </p><p>“Padma Patil.” Hermione muses quietly. She’ll catch them, whoever they are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	costly

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr is @crankwinston

Hermione flips through books while she lounges behind the counter, her eyes half lidded with exhaustion from sitting there all day and turning pages. Her fingertips, sliced several times with paper cuts have an assortment of band-aids decorating them, but she forces herself not to wince every time she touches a book. 

She sets a book down to glance at her watch. Great, she only has another hour to check them. Then she can go home and curl up with her kitten, Crookshanks, and read for pleasure.

Hermione sighs heavily as she picks another piece of literature up, flicking through the first couple pages. There’s hazy writing on the page, so she sets it down, rubs her eyes, then stares intently. 

There’s doodles in blue decorating the book as if the reader where board, all butterflies or sparkles or what looks like tools of magic. Hermione flips to the front to read the title, which displays The Great Gatsby. 

Hermione rolls her eyes. Classics like this tend to be annotated more, but that doesn’t make it any less of a convenience as a librarian, even though she’s young and should have a bigger tolerance level.

She quickly brushes past the pages to witness sad faces at Gatsby’s death, and hearts by Daisy’s name. The reader must be somewhat of a romantic.

She flips back to the first page, smoothing it out to read the names on who checked it out. 

“Padma Patil.” Hermione muses quietly. She’ll catch them, whoever they are.

…

Hermione glares scrutinizing at all who check out books, asking them their name pointedly and freezing whenever someone’s name starts with a ‘P.’

Three girls hustle up to the counter eventually, one black and the other two Indian, who look like twins. The black girl giggles as she huddles close to the Indian one who wears a lot of pink, both placing an abundance of romance novels and movies on the counter. 

“I’m Lavender Brown.” The black girl with the blonde-dyed hair says, her nose scrunching up adorably as she pushes the works closer on the counter.

“And I’m Parvati. Parvati Patil.” The other girl finishes, barely skipping a beat.

Hermione pauses while picking up Lavender’s selections, nearly letting them clatter to the ground. She whirls to the other girl standing behind them, looking vaguely annoyed and somewhat reserved, clad in mostly sky blue. Her dark hair hangs low at her waist and she wears bangles on her wrists which make a tinkling sound when she moves. She wears a little bit of makeup, and she has a nose ring that flashes Hermione with light when she turns her head.

“Who are you?” Hermione asks, barely managing to keep her voice level.

“Padma Patil.” 

Hermione slams the books down on the counter, her eyes narrowing despite how gorgeous the other girl is. “You!” She whisper-shouts. She is in a library, after all. She wouldn’t like to be fired.

“Me?” Padma asks, cocking her head to the side slightly and pursing her lips.

“You annotated all over The Great Gatsby in blue pen! I can’t believe you did that, you’ll have to pay for another one.” Hermione scolds, and Padma’s nostrils flare with her upset state.

“Parvati!” She says shrilly, and her sister bursts into a rather nervous fit of giggles.

“Hey, I thought it would be funny. Lav encouraged it.” She blames, pointing behind her as Lavender shoves her shoulder lightly, but neither deny anything.

Hermione lowers her head into her hands, rubbing her temples. “Well, whoever did it, you’re paying for a new one.”

“Oh, come on, Miss Librarian! Please! We didn’t bring any money!” Parvati begs, and it actually looks like she’s telling the truth. Even Lavender is pouting for her sake, clasping her hands and wringing them in shame, while Padma looks completely unimpressed. Hermione represses the urge to laugh.

She huffs, she can’t be too lenient. This is her job. 

Before she can deal the punishment, Padma leans across the counter, her expression deadpan as her sisters’ chin begins to wobble. “Is there any way I could work here, or something? To pay the debt.”

Hermione chews on her lower lip, rolling it in between her teeth as she ponders. “I… I guess. Maybe once.” She relents, and Padma gives her a minimal smile. 

Padma immediately gets engulfed by an embrace from both her sister and her sister’s companion, and she rolls her eyes, but shoots Hermione a smile over her shoulder.

…

Working with Padma doesn’t end up as badly as she thought it would, but maybe that’s because she didn’t actually annotate a library book in pen. They chatter instead of flipping through endless pages, most customers staying out of their way and instead checking out a book quietly. They have many shared interests, and they share mainly the same fascinations with books.

It takes Hermione to realize most of the customers have filtered out of the library, Padma nodding backwards towards the sun setting through the wide windows that surround the building. 

Hermione scrambles to collect her bags, walking with Padma to the door, their hands brushing a couple times as they walk so closely their shoulders touch. 

“I had fun today.” Padma says finally once they’ve exited, leaning casually on the door.

“I did, too. And you know…” Hermione pauses, a smirk playing on her lips now. “The Great Gatsby was a pretty expensive book. You might have to come in another time to work it all off.” She says coyly, which gets a smirk out of Padma.

“We’ll see.” She says smartly, not even hesitating before leaning in to press a kiss to Hermione’s dark cheek, turning her head with a flamboyant swish of her long hair and walking away from the library, not even turning her head.

“I’ll see you next week!” She calls over her shoulder as she rounds the corner, Hermione numbly lifting a hand to wave back at the girl.

Next week. She’ll have to dress better next time.


End file.
